Funeral director hired to cremate woman dumps her body in the woods and walks away

Background: The Simonet Funeral Home in Stillwater, Minn. (Google Maps). Inset (left): Benjamin Hanson (St. Croix County Sheriff's Office). Inset (right): Alyce Peterson (DNA Doe Project).

A former funeral director from Minnesota was given jail time after he admitted to disposing of a woman's dead body in the woods instead of cremating her.

Benjamin Hanson, 57, pleaded guilty on March 24 to hiding a corpse in connection with the recovery of a skull in a wooded area of Wisconsin in 2002. After the DNA from the skull was analyzed, the human remains were identified by the DNA Doe Project in 2021 as belonging to Alyce Peterson, 92, who died in July 2001. It was determined that Hanson was a funeral director at Simonet Funeral Home in Stillwater, Minnesota, at the time, and he was responsible for cremating Peterson's remains.

Peterson's family had received ashes they were told belonged to their loved one.

According to court documents obtained by local NBC affiliate KARE, Hanson's tenure at the Simonet Funeral Home in the early 2000s was a troubled one. Investigators spoke to his former co-workers, including one colleague who filled in for Hanson during the summer of 2001 while he was "going off the deep end." This was the same summer he was tasked with handling Peterson's funeral and cremation.

Hanson was reportedly fired from the funeral home in 2002 after he was accused of stealing from the business. He was also served with a harassment order after he was accused of swerving his vehicle at the employee who replaced him. That order was later denied.

On Oct. 19, 2002, Boy Scouts were hiking through a wooded area of Houlton, Wisconsin, when they found a garbage bag they soon learned was filled with human remains, including Peterson's skull. After Peterson was identified through genetic genealogy nearly two decades later, DNA Doe Project case manager Eric Hendershott said, "This is the first time that I have seen a Doe identified as someone who had a death certificate and who was supposedly cremated."

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KARE said it was not clear if the remains received by Peterson's family really belonged to her. Medical professionals who examined her skull said it had likely been severed from her body with a handsaw. Authorities did not have an explanation for how Peterson's skull ended up in a different state or where the rest of her remains are.

Hanson was sentenced on Tuesday to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to hiding a corpse. A charge of theft was dismissed. He was ordered to take prescription medication, participate in mental health services, and not work in the funeral industry.